Three persons of a private sports club were arrested today by the Property Cell of Mumbai Crime Branch for taking money from aspiring cricketers and making false promises of getting them slected to the Indian Premier League (IPL), East Africa Premier League and Ranji trophy teams, police said.

Police identified the three arrested persons as Vijay Barate (40), Jeevan Mukadam (25) and Dinesh More (26) of the RN Sports Club.

The arrests were made on the basis of a complaint filed by a 35 year old cricket coach who approached Chembur police yesterday stating that he and his players were cheated by the accused between August 2013 to December 2014.

According to the complainant, who coaches cricketers at Azad Maidan, the accused told him that they are the official selectors for an IPL team- Hyderabad Sunrisers- and they can select his players for the team.

The accused contacted the complainant through email and also used Hyderabad Sunrisers team logo on the sports club's letter-head to convince the complainant that they were connected to the team, he said.

Police said that the accused collected Rs 68.07 lakhs from the players and the coach to facilitate their selection.

The players realised they had been cheated when they got no intimation of any slection from the RN Sports Club later.

Police based on the complaint registered a case under sections pertaining to cheating under the Indian Penal Code as well as sections of the Information Technology Act.

The accused were produced before court which sent them to police custody till December 4.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)